Marinha Hotel

Why would you want to stay in this exact location in Paris? Not sure but I landed there to attend a business meeting nearby and thought this was cheap and so worth a punt. The hotel is located 5 mins walk from the Gentilly RER stop that was a direct ~45 min journey from Paris CDG airport, so very convenient. My fault for not finding out that this is in fact a Portuguese restaurant with 9 rooms attached. That’s what the Marinha Hotel is; a restaurant with a few rooms. Found this out when I arrived one Sunday evening with a colleague after travelling from Bristol airport. We were delayed and hungry when we checked in at 10.15pm. Area was restaurant/bar barren as far as we could see so almost resorted to early night with empty supper. But no, super friendly staff had other ideas and just told us to drop our stuff in our room and pop into the restaurant for some food. This what we did and we had a great meal for a very decent price. Their stone cooked steak was a real treat but not sure my digestive system appreciated all the hard work it had to do then from 1am to waking up time. The raw steak was loaded on to a VERY hot marble stone that sizzled away while you watched your meat cooking. You can then choose between raw and black. All in all for around €40 each we had a couple of beers, shared a bottle of decent Alentejo Red and had a decent meal. They will do you a breakfast in the restaurant for €4.50 and this was fine- coffee, croissant, toast and ham. Fine to set you off into the streets. The room was OK for the price (€66 a night). They overlook a fairly busy couple of streets that wakes up early, and they are generally comfortable. The shower unit is for thin people only otherwise if you manage to get in dry I doubt that you will slip out wet unless you refrain from rinsing the soap off your body. Very confined. The other issue was the location of the large mirror on the door leading out to the corridor. Gave me the heeby jeebies as I kept thinking there was someone else in the room with me! I had a hell of a fright when I glanced sight of a naked man crossing from the shower. It was me. Then there was the lock to the door of room 103. I had trouble getting in and out and brute force was the only way to unlock it. No good for the weak and I left my door unlocked in the night in case of emergency and me getting stuck in my bedroom. They need to sort this out; not sure about the other doors and my colleague had no complaints regarding his door. For the price I paid, this was great value and the staff were all great, even the poor barmaid that resorted to mopping around our feet one evening rather than turfing us out. If I go again it will be a Friday so I can hit the Marinha Hotel Disco.